[Greenbuilding] Passive House Overheating

[Reuben Deumling]

On Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 4:41 AM, John Straube <jfstraube at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Opening windows depends on clients and weather.  In say, Chicago, there
> can be weeks when the temperature at night is not below 70-75 and so is not
> an effective cooling option. In many houses, people dont know or want to
> bother opening windows at the right time. Based on the my walks through
> suburbia across the US in the early evening when it is cool outside and the
> AC units on house after house are running, I would venture to say this is
> the vast majority of people.
> To me there is not much doubt that you can tweak a design to solve one
> person/family's personal preference and tolerance for high temperature.
> But if we are to make a real differences to millions of new and retrofit
> homes, it seems the safer bet is to make designs that require less effort
> to operate, assume normal comfort tolerances, and assume people are not
> always home and willing to operate components.
>

One thing I notice about opening and closing windows twice a day in our
house is that interacting with the double hung 1894 windows plus aluminum
storm/screens is rather a pain. Fiddly, sticky, hard to reach some of them,
and for all the effort you still only get < half the area of the window
open for a breeze.
Compared to the inward opening casements in the house I grew up in, where
opening the windows is an unmitigated pleasure, takes about one second, I
think this may be an additional point to consider. I have not lived in a
house with contemporary US-style windows, but those I've visited featuring
new double hungs not only (obviously) still can only be opened maximally
<half way, the action is not what I would call pleasurable.
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